Toyota's "Black Box" Could Hold Accident Clues

[DainBramaged]

Toyota (TM) cars have a "black box". Although it's not as sophisticated as those used in airplanes, it does record data about a car's performance and activity. The box is officially called an "event data recorder" and according to The Wall Street Journal," It records vehicle and engine speeds as well as brake, accelerator and throttle positions and other data that can help determine the causes of accidents."

In the name of transparency, and after the recall of over eight million of its cars and some 2010 versions of its hybrid Prius, it would be reasonable to assume that Toyota would want to let the public know what the data from its device has revealed, but so far, they have not said much. Similar devices found in cars made by U.S. companies can be analyzed by third parties, but Toyota's "black box" data can only be retrieved by Toyota.

Toyota's reluctance to provide data from its recorder adds another layer of concern about the company's cars. It's not clear whether the No.1 auto company in the world has shared information from its tracking system with any of the government auto authorities in the countries where the carmaker has recalled cars, and it is not clear if Toyota will ever share the data with its customers or the broader public.

Toyota is faced with more than recalls at this point. It is not clear whether software in Toyota vehicles is a cause of brake or accelerator problems, although Toyota claims software has nothing to do with the flaws behind the recalls. And it's not clear why Toyota waited so long to recall some models that it may have known had mechanical issues. This question will be at the heart of a growing number of liability suits against the firm.

Toyota has kept quiet about what is in the "black boxes," but it's certain that government safety bodies and plaintiff's attorneys will find out. And if the car company is hiding information, it will only go further to undermine its reputation.


http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/company-news/toyotas-black-box-could-hold-accident-clues/19359588/

[liberal N proud]

1. So far, they have not said much about the entire problem

Toyota doing what it has done for years, keep every problem secret in interest of polishing the companies image.


America has been duped by the Toyota quality hype.

[madokie]

2. Hell that reads like its a republicon story

You couldn't run fast enough to give me a TOYota and not for that reason alone. When you travel the hiways take note of the numbers of 10 years and older autos and as you start approaching the 15 and 20 years old vehicles you'll notice a couple things, one is that there is very few Japanese branded vehicles and the second is that the majority of the ones who are in that age group are made by none other than our own Ford Motor Company. I've been paying attention to this for years and the number one old auto still traveling out hiways is fords led by the f series pick'emuptrucks. GM products, especially their pick'emuptrucks is second in line. You won't see many 20 year old Japanese branded or Chrysler brands. I challenge anyone to take me up on this and see for yourself. So from that I'm convinced that the fords are the better built and designed vehicles on the roads as a whole.
I'd rather have a picture of a ford as the keys to a TOYota, ;-)

[DainBramaged]

3. I've been noticing that too

LOTS of old Fords and Chevys, few if any japanese cars over 10 years old around these parts. Unless they ship them down South when they have been worn out.

[DemoTex]

4. A number of aircraft accidents have been solved by data harvesting ..

In crashes of aircraft without a digital flight data recorder (or severely damaged DFDR), flight guidance system (FGS) data is sometimes harvested from the non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM) of the flight-guidance computer (FGC) processor. These processes involve standard and accepted techniques used by accident investigators, and included sophisticated algorithms for extrapolating missing data points.

For example, elevator servo volts, the voltage measured across the windings of the DC servo motor, represent the voltage applied by the servo driver of the FGS when the motor is being driven by the autopilot. Conversely, the elevator servo back-electro motive force (back-EMF) is generated by the rotation of the elevator servo motor when the autopilot is disconnected and the motor is driven by an external force (such as the control column). If this type of event can be accurately determined from data harvesting after an aircraft crash, it can be used in car crashes.

I worked on just this type of detective work as an ALPA airline accident investigator, and I have written articles about it in aviation journals.